New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has unveiled how Australian secondary schools make decisions about organising students into classes based on their perceived academic ability.
Lead author Dr Olivia Johnston explained that the findings show class ability grouping is often used despite evidence suggesting the practice be delayed and minimised.
"We need to support schools' informed decision making about class ability grouping. Schools are busy places and there's a lot of competing pressures. Forming class groups is one decision they make in a myriad of decisions, but it can have far reaching academic and social impacts for students," Dr Johnston said.
"We know that student abilities aren't static and develop over time.
"Class grouping by ability does not improve overall student academic outcomes and there are equity concerns associated with the practice.
"If students are grouped into classes by ability, it is recommended that the groupings are as flexible as possible, and that academic achievement is used to inform placements."
Flexible and inclusive grouping practices enable schools to ensure that students are not 'locked in' to lower ability groups.
"Our study reveals that schools draw on a range of information to determine how to group classes from Year 7-9 by ability, including student effort, behaviour concerns, parent requests, friendships, teacher recommendations and academic achievement," Dr Johnston explained.
The findings form part of a three-year research project led by ECU's School of Education.
Data from the first year of the study included a survey that went to every secondary school in Western Australia and most Queensland secondary schools.
"Of the 147 participant secondary schools, we conducted 12 in-depth follow up interviews with school leaders to gain detailed insights into class grouping practices," Dr Johnston said.
"We looked at how schools are making decisions about which classes students from Year 7–9 are put into. And if they are using ability grouping, how the school decides what a student's ability group should be."
What information are schools using to create class ability groups?
Where class ability grouping was used, most schools reported grouping students through a combination of achievement data from NAPLAN (76.1%), teacher recommendations (73.9%), primary and secondary school achievement data (59.8% each), and other standardised tests (52.2%).
"Schools that used mixed ability class groupings referred to teacher recommendations and past achievement data to ensure that students of all academic ability levels were spread across classes," Dr Johnston explained.
Dr Johnston recommended that schools take care to ensure students are not inadvertently being sorted into groups according to their social backgrounds.
To group or not to group by ability
Of the 147 participant secondary schools, 92 confirmed using ability grouping in Year 7–9.
"Many of the schools that weren't using class ability grouping either didn't have big enough student numbers, as is the case for many remote or regional schools, or they follow an alternative school philosophy such as Montessori," Dr Johnston said.
"Schools use a range of datapoints and often undergo extensive in-school consultation processes when making decisions on class groups – whether they group by ability or not. But they don't follow any specific Australian guidelines or official framework when making these decisions, because there are none available .
"Secondary schools that have programs for academically gifted students can face the added burden of managing parents pushing for their child to get a place in extension classes.
"One school detailed how they've had to safeguard around pressure from parents by addressing it in advance to avoid being inundated with requests."
Class grouping practices seldom significantly change
"The other interesting finding was that class grouping practices used by schools rarely significantly changed," Dr Johnston said. "However, the research revealed that schools are interrogating their practice and are open to change if it means improving student educational outcomes."
Of the schools surveyed, 71.3% reported that they had not changed their class grouping practices in three years and 88.7% plan to continue using the same practices.
"Schools, teachers, and future generations of school leaders have an incredible opportunity to prevent class grouping practices from reflecting preexisting social inequality among students.
"By using mixed ability class groups, we can further empower schools to differentiate their teaching practices while reducing the disadvantage and privilege divide."
